Son of Song Dynasty

Chapter 145 Special Missions
Smoke and dust billowed on the official road more than [-] miles south of Anxiong Pass. Pan Mei led a cavalry army of more than [-] people and was marching rapidly towards Panyu, the capital of the Southern Han Dynasty. The dust was like a winding and crawling yellow earth dragon.

The task that Zhao Dezhao entrusted to Pan Mei was: to capture Panyu in one fell swoop before the surrender of the king and his ministers Liu Yun!
Two days after the defenders of Anxiong Pass surrendered without a fight, Pan Mei led the main force of the follow-up Song Army to arrive at Guancheng and joined the forward troops led by Zhao Dezhao.

Another day later, the secret agent dispatched to Panyu in advance reported the news: Liu Yujun and his ministers had learned the news that the Anxiongguan guards had surrendered without a fight. Armed with a military talisman, he urgently recruited soldiers and horses from subordinate prefectures and counties to help the capital, but on the other hand, he lacked confidence and was discussing with the courtiers whether to fight or surrender. The court was divided into two factions, one advocated to fight hard, and the other advocated surrender However, the two factions were already arguing like a pot of porridge.

Therefore, when Pan Mei received Zhao Dezhao's order, she was a little confused: "Your Highness, let the generals lead the army to rush forward and approach the city of Panyu in order to forcefully land Liu Ying and his subjects?

"No." Zhao Dezhao shook his head, and said lightly: "From my king's point of view, among the civil and military ministers in the small imperial court of the Southern Han Dynasty, there are far more people who are wolf-hearted, servile and humble than those who are talented and virtuous. Therefore, even if they need to struggle internally, they will definitely surrender in the end, so the task that this king needs you to complete is to make it too late for them to surrender!"

A look of astonishment suddenly appeared on Pan Mei's face, and she couldn't help but said, "What's the purpose of this? Sun Tzu said in the Art of War that the best choice is to use soldiers without fighting. There is no need for soldiers to attack the city." If you fight to the death, you can receive the effect of defeating the enemy and expanding the territory, so what's wrong with it? Besides, didn't His Highness allow the Anxiong Pass defenders to surrender the day before yesterday? Why did they change course and not allow Panyu to surrender—"

Zhao Dezhao raised his right hand to interrupt Pan Mei, and said coldly: "General Pan, what this king issued is a military order."

Although Pan Mei was full of dissatisfaction, she also understood that Zhao Dezhao's words meant that there was no room for negotiation on this matter, so she could only surrender and accept the order: "De is, the general will follow His Royal Highness's order and capture Panyu City as soon as possible!"

"My king will give you a three-day time limit!" Zhao Dezhao eased the expression on his face, patted Pan Mei's armour lightly, and said with a smile: "General Pan, in fact, your suggestion is not unreasonable, but Panyu and Anxiong are close friends. There is a difference, so this king is eager for Anxiongguan to be surrendered, but he doesn't like Panyu to be surrendered at all, what is the difference between them, you have plenty of time to think about it slowly."

Since he led the army to set off, Zhao Dezhao has been almost arbitrary in everything. After making a decision, his subordinates have no choice but to question it. Such a domineering style has caused a lot of secret criticism among senior generals. He is a "dominant Zhao Kuo".

However, as the Song army broke through the checkpoints twice in a row, and won almost effortlessly, all these criticisms disappeared in an instant, and Zhao Dezhao won the heartfelt admiration of the soldiers. The "ridiculous" decision-making has also become a wise and martial arts praised by everyone. Even Pan Mei, the deputy commander-in-chief who is quite a bit arrogant, has to be convinced by Zhao Dezhao because of losing the bet.

After he made an emergency landing at Anxiong Pass without a fight, Zhao Dezhao received quite a lot of praise and compliments around him, but he was actually very confident in his heart. With modern knowledge and information, there are tricks to trick one's brains.

However, if you really want to break the city and kill the enemy to fight a tough battle, you have to rely on a veteran general like Pan Mei. This is the time to use him seriously.

Only then did Zhao Dezhao lead the light soldiers to attack.The task of breaking through Panyu was handed over to Pan Mei, and she turned to lead the main infantry to support her.

……

At this moment, Pan Mei recalled the conversation with Zhao Dezhao before he was about to leave Anxiong Pass on the march. Where is the difference?And why must it be captured before Panyu Kaesong surrenders?
But Pan Mei also understands very well that this is not a problem that he must figure out. After all, he is just a warrior who leads troops to fight. His Royal Highness the county king has done it several times, but which one didn't he end up with himself?

At this time, a fast horse galloped towards the Chinese army against the direction of the army, interrupting Pan Mei's thoughts.

That man was a banner officer accompanying the team, he jumped off his horse, saluted Pan Mei, and said, "General, it's almost time for Shen, may I ask if our army is camping here?"

Right now it is summer, Shenshi is actually still more than an hour before dark, but in this era, due to the widespread malnutrition, most soldiers have night blindness, and it is difficult to discern the road when the sky is slightly dark, so they often need to take advantage of the dark Before it gets dark, we have to camp in advance for the night.

Pan Mei looked up at the sky, the sun had already sunk into the west mountain for half a round, she pondered for a while and said: "Send the order, continue the journey, walk ten miles before setting up camp!"

The order given by Zhao Dezhao was very tight on time, Pan Mei didn't dare to have the slightest delay during the march, it would be good to have an extra trip.

Just as the flag officer was about to leave after receiving the military order, there was another galloping horse galloping from the front, with two small red flags stuck behind his back.

The scouting rider cracked his whip and began to shout loudly from a long distance away, apparently encountered an extremely urgent situation and needed to report to the Chinese army.

Pan Mei didn't show the slightest eagerness. He stopped his mount and motioned to the flag officer, telling him not to pass the order for now.

"What's going on ahead?" Pan Mei asked slowly with a blank expression when the scouting rider galloped to the front and back.

The scouting rider jumped off his horse, bowed his hands to Pan Mei, and said loudly with a happy face: "General, the scouting riders in front of our army have captured a small group of knights. They claim to be entrusted by the Liu family. Come here to ask the Palace of the King and the General to surrender."

Pan Mei's old face suddenly became darker than the bottom of the pot, and she cursed annoyedly.

The scouting rider who came to report this great news couldn't help but startled. He stretched out his hand and scratched his head, as if he was very puzzled by this: Our army was still in the middle of the march, and the enemy came here in a hurry to ask for surrender. It stands to reason that this It's a great thing to be able to secure the winning ticket without any effort. Why does General Pan seem to be a little unhappy?

(End of this chapter)